Dear cahoodaloodalers, I was hoping to have better, more cheery news to share, but unfortunately our special issue delay is going to continue for a bit. Kate has sent me an email to pass on to all of you:

Hello guys. I am here to tender my resignationfrom cahoodaloodaling. The past year has been a mess of liver failure& cancer & compromised immune systems & a bunch of other technicalsounding crap. The fact is I cannot reliably keep up my end ofediting & publishing here at cahoodaloodaling. Our lovely & talentedRaquel Thorne will be in charge until she finds another permanenteditor but I am sure the best will come from here & all the incrediblework everyone continues to send in. I will miss being a part of theteam & your writing lives. Love & words to you all.

Kate Hammerich

Kate, who has been the technical brains of our operation, will be sorely missed. Hopefully, at some point in the future, she will be well enough to come back on board as a main editor; however, in the mean time, she has secured us a boon of a guest editor for our upcoming January Issue! (We are still accepting submissions.)It Happened in a Flash will be guest edited by Heather Bell. I’m personally very excited as I’ve been following her poetry escapades for years. Here’s one of my personal favorite interviews.

Heather Bell’s work has been published in Rattle, Grasslimb, Barnwood, Poets/Artists, Red Fez, Ampersand and many others. She was nominated for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Pushcart Prize from Rattle, won the New Letters 2009 Poetry Prize, and most recently was a finalist for the 2013 Consequence Prize in Poetry. Heather has also published four books, including one of flash fiction. Any more details can be found here: http://hrbell.wordpress.com/

I am also excited to formerly announce our Pushcart Nominations for the year (with links to the issues in which they appeared):

I hope to get our special contest issue up soon, but please bear with me as I learn the technical ropes and while we have staffing changes. Please keep Kate in your thoughts as she continues to battle health issues. And as always, those of us on staff appreciate getting to read and publish your work.

Jessica Lindsay began poetry the same way she began photography: when someone told her “Hey, you’re pretty good.” Of course, “pretty good” in seventh grade was actually morbidly bad, and it wasn’t until her junior year of high school that she realized that poetry could be something more than teenage angst. So her poetry turned more into snapshots of her life, and when her interest in photography grew, her writing hit a rather large block that she constantly struggles to get through. Well, that and inner peace doesn’t really give an emotional writer much to work with.

To date, all of her favorite poems happen to be the ones about her very dysfunctional family. Figures. She is currently trying to write a novel, but that is forever a work in progress simply because she always wants to skip to the “good stuff”.

She is very shy about people in her life reading her poetry, so it can only be found on Jessicaconk.deviantart.com. She was once published in her community college’s lit mag and got honorable mention for a horrible story back in eighth grade.